FT admits gender pay gap

The Financial Times has admitted that its female journalists are paid less than men in equivalent jobs - but has defended its employment practices, MediaGuardian.co.uk can reveal.

In a confidential internal memo obtained by MediaGuardian.co.uk, the managing editor, Dan Bogler, acknowledged that "the bald statistics show that women are paid less than men for equivalent jobs at the FT" but then said the problem was largely down to length of service.

"This does not take into account the fact that, on average, our female staff have shorter service records than their male colleagues, which explains the difference," he wrote.

"Pay within the editorial department is negotiated on an individual basis, usually with me, and I reject the implication that I am systematically or deliberately paying women less than men."

The email is just the latest chapter in a long-running pay dispute with FT staff, who voted on Tuesday to "use the appropriate equality legislation" to address "massive anomalies in pay".

Members of the National Union of Journalists have also pledged to conduct an independent survey into pay, but say the FT's own salary survey found that women earn on average 11% less than men at the title.

Bogler declined to comment, but an FT spokesman said the figure was less than 10%. Women's career breaks and a high prevalence of men in better-paid foreign correspondent roles had exaggerated the pay difference, he said.

"It's something that we want to improve and human resources are looking at it," the spokesman said.

The Financial Times has been criticised by the industry for a dearth of senior female editorial executives, despite the FT Group and parent company Pearson being run by Rona Fairhead and Dame Marjorie Scardino respectively.

At last month's British Press Awards, host Jon Snow joked "where are all the women?" as a male-dominated team accepted the FT's award for newspaper of the year.

The union's concerns over equal pay for women add to the stalemate between the NUJ and FT management over a pay increase and bonus package.

A second resolution passed by the FT's union chapel on Tuesday "deplores management's failure to move towards resolution of the pay dispute, in particular by providing concrete bonus proposals".

The union demanded "concrete action" on both issues by May 13.

Bogler's email to the FT father of chapel, Peter Chapman, blamed the union for "yet another delay" in settling the dispute and said that he understood an agreement had been reached during earlier negotiations held in February at Acas, the conciliation service.

"I am at a loss to see what fresh concrete action I should take," he wrote, insisting that the proposed 4.5% increase was higher than any other Fleet Street newspaper and pointing to a £40,000 salary minimum and profit-sharing plan.

Journalists are unhappy that management have urged restraint in meetings with the union at the time when the company has reported increased profit and sales growth.

Staff were angered by a March 3 email from Scardino, highlighting the company's highest ever annual profits of £634m and sales up 6% to £4.2bn.

She said staff would be thanked with a $500 bonus. "I know it isn't enough; it doesn't even come close to thanking you adequately. But I hope you'll find a good use for it," Scardino wrote in the email.

One FT journalist described "a disconnect between what the company tells the union and the company's fortunes over the past year".

The introduction of a Manila operation, which created around 20 web production and editorial jobs, has also created concern. The publisher insists that the jobs are not related to 50 staff redundancies made to the London office in late 2006.

The FT said it could not comment on the specific pay issues because of the ongoing negotiations.

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